Chapter Thirty-Five
The day went well for the most part. My game was much better than the day before but I was distracted over everything that happened the night before. Even though he was playing against me, Cecil still gave me some pointers and tried to help me work out my strength problem. It was more like a leisurely game of golf than a skins match. I was a little surprised when my father and I won but as we were walking back to the clubhouse, I saw my dad joking around with Cecil's pro partner and that mystery went out the window. They didn't let us win but they weren't playing to their fullest abilities either.
After a little lunch, Cecil, Allie, and I spent the afternoon at the beach. His shock of seeing me in a bikini was hilarious when we first got here. At first he didn't know what I was doing as I took off my jean shorts and started to take off my shirt. He tried to tug it back over my head but he quickly gave up when I tried to tug his shirt off in response. Distracting him was easy since I knew he had an aversion to being half naked in public. Or maybe it was just around me since I'd spotted him a couple of times without a shirt during the summers we were apart. I was all observational and from a distance, obviously, but he refused to shed the "You Sunk My Battleship" tee even after Allie and I laid out on our towels. Every time we brought up him taking it off, he would tell us both he was fine. Of course he was a bit more shaper with Allie, telling her once he didn't know she was so concerned about him. As time passed, I wondered what it would take in order to get it off.
The tension between them was still there, especially when Allie decided to stop working on a tan she didn't need and started boy watching. Since I was sitting between them, the random comments such as "What do you think about him, Nat?" and "He has a really nice ass, don't you think?" made everything uncomfortable. Cecil was boiling behind his aviators on my left but he took it in stride, keeping his mouth shut. Probably only because I asked him to try and be nice to Allie before we left the clubhouse. I knew he had a retort in there somewhere. He was like Schylar in that sense.
But a few comments later I knew Cecil had reached the end of his rope and was about to snap at her if I didn't eradicate the problem. I saw this as my opportunity to get some alone time with him, possibly in the water since Allie declared earlier she wasn't going anywhere near it.
Thinking quickly, I put down the book I was supposed to be reading for my AP History class and sat up. Some distance between the two would be good for everyone so I got up off my towel and held my hand out to Cecil.
"What?" he said, looking between my face and my hand, his own school reading propped up in his lap since he was in a beach chair.
"I want to go into the water and I need you to protect me from all the sharks."
That got him smiling and Allie scowling. "There are no sharks in the water," she commented as Cecil quickly casted the books aside and got up.
If I had any doubt that he would take off his shirt to go into the water, it was gone now as he discarded his shirt onto the chair.
What I wasn't prepared for was what he would look like without it. Yeah I'd seen the picture, bare chest and abs, I'd even imagined it a couple of times. But there was a complete difference between seeing it from afar, imagining it, and then having it put on display right before you.
I stood there a little dazed, my hand still held out a little limply, and thank god I had sunglasses on my face or someone might've actually seen me oogling at my own boyfriend. I was completely shameless.
Cecil took my proffered hand and pressed two of his fingers under my chin, successfully lifting my jaw from the sand and closing my mouth. "You're not sleeping so stop drooling."
"I—I—" Blinking at his comment and when his words finally registered, I popped him on the arm. "Cecil McCourt!"
He busted out laughing and just as I made to swing at him again, he let go of my hand and started backpedaling towards the ocean. "The first hit was free, sweetheart. You'll have to catch me if you want to do it again."
A wicked grin spread across my face as I took off my sunglasses and tossed them back on my towel. "Challenge accepted."
I took off after him as he turned around and bolted. Sucker was fast, I had to give him that. He had us running up and down the beach, never far from where Allie sat propped up on her towel watching us. She actually looked amused the few times I remembered to look over to check on her. I didn't want her getting snatched at the beach.
Just as a powerful wave came crashing onto the sand, he caught me up, lifting and twirling me so the water passed under my feet before setting me back down. The muscles I used to smile were aching because I was doing so much of it, along with laughing. I don't think I'd laughed this hard in a long while. There was an equally big smile spread across his face before he leaned down and kissed me. The roar of the ocean was drowned out by my own heartbeat and rapid breathing from running after him. Even though I wanted to enjoy this particular lip lock, I was still in a playful mood so I plucked the sunglasses off his face just as I pulled away.
My smile was back on my face as I waved the sunglasses at him.
"Hey!" he exclaimed.
"You want them back?"
A smile started creeping back on his face. "I would rather the kissing but..."
He bolted in my direction and I squealed at the suddenness of it. I managed to escape his clutches but I knew it wouldn't last long. Cecil was definitely faster than me and even the water wouldn't slow him down. The sand hadn't.
That's how the rest of the afternoon went, the pair of us playing around like we were kids again and the past three years hadn't happened. Not to mention the random stolen kisses. It was nice. It was better than nice, really. It was perfect. Allie eventually took the stick out of her ass and joined us in a game of water tag, of which Cecil was never it because he always seemed to be just inches out of reach.
When we got back to the clubhouse, Allie went her separate way to get ready for a dinner date she set up with one of the other caddies. That left Cecil and I alone for dinner since my father had plans with some of his old golfing buddies. I was sure they would spend most of the evening sitting around a table talking over old tournament wins and getting semi-intoxicated. He'd invited me along but the gleam in his eye told me I didn't have to and he needed some alone time. So I declined, telling him to have a good evening and be in before midnight.
Cecil came around to collect me for dinner at eight wearing a navy blue blazer over a polo shirt and jeans. I'd seen him in this ensemble quite a few times over the past three years at various events we both managed to attend at the same time.
I wasn't completely ready yet since my father did stop by to find out my plans for the evening. He was the perfect dad if I do say so myself. Cecil waited patiently as I slipped on some heels that Allie had graciously lent me. I swear that girl didn't go anywhere without ten pairs of high heels.
And just as the two of us were about to set out to go to dinner, two things happened simultaneously. I got a phone call and someone knocked on my door.
It was a blocked number but I didn't see any harm in it. Sometimes Schylar would call me randomly from unknown numbers when he got drunk and needed a ride. He would borrow some random person's phone and I always had to remind him by the end of the conversation to hand the phone back. But he would never be drunk this early. So I answered the phone call just in case something was wrong and asked Cecil to answer the door.
"Hello?"
"Why hello, dearest. How's the face?"
My attentions were immediately split when I heard Cecil say, "What are you doing here?"
Andrzej brushed passed him and entered the room, looking none too happy. It got even worse when he saw I was on the phone and the look on my face I'd gotten after hearing my caller's voice.
"Give me the phone," Andrzej said sternly.
"Aw so he's there. Good. That means he got my message. And that means I can deliver yours. This is working out so well. All the dominoes are lining up perfectly."
I tore my attention from Andrzej and focused solely on the call. After the demand he made of me earlier, I hadn't expected to hear from him again. I'd turned him down, of course, and only upon hearing Cecil and Andrzej's approach to the shack in the woods, did he disappear.
"Chris..."
That got Cecil's attention. He closed the door quietly and stood next to Andrzej, both of them waiting. I was half surprised Andrzej hadn't tried to pry the phone away from me. Maybe he was trying a new tact and holding all that anger and rage inside. It couldn't be easy considering he'd just come off a new moon.
"Go to the party tonight," Chris said. "If you don't, Allie's going to meet a rather unfortunate end."
All the blood drained out of my face, maybe even my upper half, and pooled in my legs and feet.
"What?" She was supposed to be out on a date.
"It's rather simple. Go to the annual Elite party and you'll save your best girl pal. Skip it and you'll be reading about a dead body being found on the golf course in the newspaper tomorrow morning."
"It wouldn't make the paper tomorrow. It would make it the day after tomorrow..."
"Now isn't the time, Nat. Come, don't come, it's up to you. Personally, I don't care."
"You don't mean that," I said softly. "Allie is your friend..."
"Wrong. She's your friend."
"Just because you're angry with me..."
"Would you rather it be Schylar? Because I can get rid of Allie and go snatch him. I still have time..."
"How do I know you even have her? You could be lying."
"Unlike Cyrus, I would never lie to you," he said matter of factly. "But because I knew you would ask, I left you a little surprise under your bed. Take a gander if you'd like or have the wolf do it, doesn't matter to me. I can wait."
Before I could even contemplate it, Andrzej was on his knees and looking under the bed. I was begging quietly in my head that he wouldn't find anything, that this was all just a cruel joke, but the second his arm stretched under the bed, I knew. All of this was really happening; Chris was no longer my friend. He was the true enemy, the villain.
Andrzej pulled out an envelope that had the Golf Course's logo on it and literally sniffed it. His top lip curled and he held it out to me.
"Has his and Allie's scent all over it," he said quietly.
I propped the phone between my shoulder and ear and opened the envelope. Inside was a picture of Allie bound and gagged, still wearing the outfit she'd worn at the beach. But the edges were cut off so all you couldn't see what or if anything surrounded her. She was unconscious, that much was obvious, and there was a band aid placed close to her hair line.
Chris had hit Allie, or maybe the caddie she was supposed to have a date with did it for him.
Cecil came over and took the picture out of my hand when I offered it to him.
"So what do you think? Not my usual snapshots, I know, but she's always photogenic. I think it really captures her vulnerable side."
"Chris...I..."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. 'You don't understand why I'm doing this, how could I hurt one of my friends, she never did anything to me.' I get it but what you don't seem to understand is at this point it doesn't matter. None of those people matter. All they are to me are potential pawns to use against you. So get it fixed in your brain that I'm not who you thought I was. Everything you thought you knew is wrong."
I stared down at the carpet. It was rather ugly, forest green and coarse against the bare foot. "Just don't hurt her anymore than you have."
"There's the brave girl we all know and loath! So I'll see you there? Wear something nice. Bye, Nat."
After I hung up the phone, the room remained silent for maybe a few seconds before they busted out arguing. I couldn't do much more than sit down on the bed and run through it in my head. Chris kidnapped Allie...he gagged her...he was threatening to hurt her...he already had hurt her...
Could Allie be the person I saw in my vision? That thought was enough to send shivers down my spine, shot fear into my heart, and make my mind up about what I was going to do.
"I'm going."
"No," Cecil turned to look at me, "you're not."
"You can't tell her what to do," Andrzej said.
"Oh so now you want her to go?"
And they did that until it got to the point that I couldn't listen anymore. I stood up and got in between them. They both stopped arguing and took a step back, Cecil took my hand as a sympathetic gesture. At least that's what I thought it was. It could've meant anything really. It was all a matter of perception. Everything that was happening right now was a matter of perception.
"I'm going. There's no point in fighting about it. I'm not going to let him hurt her and the only sure way to keep that from happing right now is to do what he says and show up."
"Tally, you shouldn't go. I know this involves Allie but...Andrzej and I can handle it. All of this smells like a trap, he literally said it. Stay here and we'll find her."
"If I don't show up...something bad is going to happen. I know it. So we're going. The three of us. Ok?"
"Not in heels, you're not. You're more likely to twist an ankle than do any real good." Andrzej crossed his arms. "Trade in the dress and shoes for some actual ass kicking attire."
I looked over at Cecil and he shrugged. "He has a point."
"My best friend's life is on the line and we're discussing what I'm wearing? There is no way I'm leaving this room in order to change. You'll leave me behind."
Andrzej snorted. "You do have a brain under that blond hair."
"You're not helping," Cecil said.
Andrzej just shrugged. I slipped off my high heels and neither of them said anything as they watched me walk over to my suitcase. A clean pair of skinnies were folded up on top since I'd contemplated just going casual for this dinner date. I grabbed them along with a shirt and bra. When I turned back around to face them, they were both looking at me like I was crazy.
"What are you doing?" Andrzej asked.
"I've had to change for P.E. every year since middle school. Do you really think I can't change in front of you?" I slipped on my pants, only hiking up the skirt of my dress when everything was covered. Even though they couldn't see anything, both boys quickly turned around when it became blatantly obvious I was doing this. "So, where is this party exactly?"
I continued to get dressed as Andrzej answered the question.
"It's in New York this year. And from what I heard the place is going to be packed."
"Great," Cecil muttered. "That's probably what he wants. The more crowded the better."
"I haven't been to one of these parties in years," Andrzej commented as he walked over to the closet which was directly in front of him. "Anyone have a plan for what we do when we get there?"
"Try to enjoy ourselves, I guess. He didn't exactly give instructions on what to do after we got there. Just that we had to show up," I said as I pulled my shirt over my head. "You can look now."
To my surprise, Cecil was blazer-less and was no longer wearing a polo but a black tee shirt. Wonder where he got that. Maybe had it on underneath...
"An evil doer without a plan. It's like a bad episode of Batman. The one from the Sixties," Andrzej commented as he looked over my closet door.
"I never knew you were into superheroes," I joked. "It explains why you're so sarcastic."
Cecil was trying really hard not to laugh. Not that he had any room to talk. Batman used to be his favorite superhero followed by Spiderman. I can't tell you how many animated TV shows I had to endure when I would spend the night at his house. Saturday mornings were filled with them and every time I tried to convince him to turn it to My Little Pony or Care Bears he would glare at me and hug the remote to his chest.
"It explains why I'm always prepared." Andrzej opened the closet door and stood off to the side. "After you."
"Does that mean you have an invisible utility belt on too?"
"Just the belt buckle," he said as I passed. "Maybe if you're lucky I'll show it to you."
"Maybe if you're lucky, I won't punch you in the face," Cecil chimed in.
"And there ya go getting territorial again. What did I tell you about that?"
I shoved Andrzej through the glowing door so he couldn't say anything else. Last thing I needed was them arguing again. Personally I would rather forget what he said last night concerning who I did and didn't belong to but apparently it was a topic neither of them were letting go.
"Ready?" I asked Cecil.
"Yeah." He sighed, obviously not wanting to go. Maybe he had a bad feeling about this too. "Tally...are you sure...?"
For a few moments, I read into that unfinished statement, all the meanings it could possibly hold. This was THE Elite party. The one I had bad history with. The stakes were high because of Allie. Chris was Elite...
"You and Andrzej will be there. I'll be fine."
"We can handle this. You don't have to go..."
"If I don't show up...he could hurt Allie. He's obviously not the person I thought he was...the Chris I knew could never, ever do this...he wants me there for a reason. Besides, it's just a party. What could happen at a party?"
He gave me a look. "You really have to ask?"
"Besides that." I gripped his shoulders and shook him a little. "The only person I would even consider going into a dark unknown room with is you so we know that particular incident isn't going to be repeated."
"True." He wrapped his arms around me making me feel safe even though we weren't even there yet. "You're not leaving my sight or the wolf's until we figure out what Chris wants."
"I have a name, you know." Andrzej poked his head back through the door and tugged on the back of my shirt. "Come on, Super Woman. We're holding up the doorways."